


Under The Rain

by Isamajor



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions
Genre: Fist Fights, Men getting dirty, Nosebleed, implied past relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2018-06-20
Packaged: 2019-05-25 23:38:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14988041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isamajor/pseuds/Isamajor
Summary: Nanu strolls to escape from his Kahuna's duty and shelters from the tropical rains in Tapu Village's ruins. He will find an old acquaintance on his way, and there is storm brewing on their reunion.





	Under The Rain

The smell of the warm earth after a rain : it was something he particularly liked. Once the heavy rains of spring had stopped, as abruptly and suddenly as it appeared. That warm, moist odor that rose from the ground and enveloped you in its steam like a haze, powerful and pungent, that he could have called almost masculine, the Island King liked to gorge himself with it, like he would savor an old whiskey at dusk, enjoying every molecule that reached him.

 

Sheltered by the ruins of the Tapu Village, he had watched the rain pass as he would have watched Tapu Bulu's anger, washing away everything in his path, but knowing that nature would regain its rights once the storm had calmed down. Nanu loved this climate, treacherous and changeable like the moon, whose sun burns through the clouds and where raindrops are so big that they hurt and smother you as they fall. A climate a bit like his character or his way of fighting. Also just like the totemic guardian of the island, who had chosen him, a descendant of immigrants from Johto, to be the Kahuna of this island. Oh sure, he respected Tapu Bulu's decision, even if in the bottom of his heart he contested it, believing that the benefit trouble/reward was not worth it. But he knew he couldn't question and irritate the divine Pokemon, the ruins of this village were a striking example of what happened when Tapu Bulu gets angry, and it wasn't nice at all.

 

Stroking the old stones polished by time and storms, a part deep inside him was burning to see the Totem at the pinnacle of its power, unleashed, showing off its real strenght and its hold on nature. On the other hand, these stones, whitened by the sun like skeletons left without burial, dissuaded him from going to see what fly could have stung the bull, who was usually placidly sleeping in the sacred ruins of Haina Desert.

 

Nanu was about to get up when a noise dissuaded him. A footstep in wet laterite, from a quadruped. From what he heard, the arrival was supple, it was not a Growlithe or a Midday Lycanroc's jolly walk, but more assured, kinda haughty, like Liepard or Persian. Two kinds of Pokémon he knew very well, being particularly fond of them. It wasn't a Torracat either, they were more stocky and smaller, so with a faster pace.But, what stood out before anything else, was to not being able to hear the steps of the human who trained this Pokémon. No Persians lived in the wild in the area. Liepard lived only in Unova Region : Grimsley, who was from there, was the only trainer on the island to own one, and he knew the gait and footstep noise of the latter, as well as the fact that his outfit made a slight hissing as he moved, due to the rubbing of his legs against the cloth of the yukata he was always wearing.

 

 

So that was a trainer, and a damn stealthy trainer coming up there. The Kahuna pondered during a few seconds the different options available to him : let the intriguing intruder pass by and avoid any possible trouble, or try to learn more about it and risk attracting some drag that would harm his tranquility. Finally, he chooses to stick out on a limb a little, his curiosity and his attraction to the felines overriding his will to not get himself involved. Nanu gauged the rubble that lay around him, until he found an old stone round like a pebble that he launched skillfully. As expected, the cat jumped on the latter, reflexively, sgiving Nanu a glimpse of a white paw .

 

 

A thin predatory smile stretched across the emaciated face of the Kahuna. A Kantosian Persian and a trainer with very high-quality soles that they make no noise when he walked, even on wet ground.

 

_“'Got lost on your way to your five-stars hotel ?”_

 

A low throaty laugh answered him. He had hit the nail on the head : tt was obviously him, the almighty boss of Kanto's and Johto's mob, even if the identity of the individual didn't enlighten him about the reasons of his visit here. Nanu gave himself a few seconds to stay still in the ruins before leaving his shelter to see this old acquaintance with his own eyes.

 

_“So you're holing up just like a rat? Well, that did not change, you always had a taste for dark and narrow places.”_

 

Nanu shrugged with a resigned look, while not losing sight of the beautiful beast who began to circle around him.

 

“ _Yeah, I'm way too old to change. Ortherwise, did you get lost on the road or did you shake off on purpose your grunts hoping they would drown on the way, or die in the desert ? It's unusual to meet His Lordship outside his quarters without any dissuasive escort..._

 

_\- I was looking for you. Of course, you are never at your post, the more you avoid your duties the better you go, I know you enough to know that well._

 

 _\- Oh, and why? Do you need my autograph for the building permit of a new casino?_ “

 

 

Feeling the venomous voice of Ula'ula's Island King as a menace against his master, the Persian uttered/gave a muffled growl , continuing to circle what it now seemed to consider as a threat to the well-being of his wealthy beloved trainer. A gesture from Giovanni's hand calmed him down , but the feline's eyes didn't leave Nanu, and the latter was keeping Persian in his sight as a precaution.

 

 

Giovanni made two steps forward, moving closer to Nanu, who was almost caught between the man and his beast.

 

 _“What brings me here is business. Your casino idea isn't bad at all, but I found a better mother lode, more lucrative, more indispensable to the populace than that._  
  
_\- Yeah, when you called me, when you mentionned the object of your call, the idea came to my mind. Oh, it's brilliant, sure, but I think you seriously underestimate the hazardous nature of your project. Unless you prepare your suicide, but I know less painful methods for that_.”

 

 

The leader of the infamous Team Rocket wiped a few drops of sweat beading on his forehead, at the edge of his hat. He kept his eyes narrowed and a small smug smile, like a kind of courtesy mask behind which he hid his annoyance, despite being aware that his interlocutor wasn't fooled by that and knowing Nanu was precisely trying to crack this mask of politeness to bring out Giovanni's hot-headed temperament the former InterPol agent knew so well.

 

 

Giovanni stepped forward again, paying no attention to the ocher mud that now smudged his impeccable brand-name shoes in Mareep's leather, staring at Nanu with his cold dark eyes. He explained to Nanu that he was behind the legal takeover bids via off-shore companies in the energy sector in Kanto and Johto regions the past years : trying to take over Azuria power plant using force ten years ago had turned out to be a mistake. He went closer to whisper in the policeman's ear that he had spies right here on this island who brought him a lot of information about some Light Deity, parallel worlds, and the arrival of people from other dimensions in Alola.

Nanu simply raised an eyebrow, but carefully recorded each piece of information in his memory, making cross-checks with the data he owned and evaluating the feasibility of Giovanni's plan. And he and he came to the conclusion that the boss wasn't joking. Even if his project was more than risky and would need pawns to sacrifice, Giovanni's goal was still... achievable.

 

“ _Not interested. And I don't want to be left to pick up the pieces. You've got Kanto's and Johto's energetic monopoly and you're not satisfied ?_

 

_\- You know me well enough to not forget I'm really hard to satisty._

 

 _\- Yeah, but there... You want to take control of a fucking God. God who has reduced a whole brilliant civilization to complete misery. Got too big for your boots and needing new shoes ?_ ”

 

 

Giovanni chuckled lightly. He couldn't help it. He just had ambition. He never wanted to make the best of what he had, he always needed more, and more. More money. More power. More sensations. And this new challenge he had thrown himself into and he began to plan carefully had given him a new spark in his eyes, which were jaded by his wealthy life. And if he failed, perhaps a glorious end was ahead of him, far from the humiliation of being taken right in the kisser by a ten-year-old ankle biter.

 

“ _The only thing I ask you is to not get in my way. You don't want trouble._

 

_\- Oh that's right, I'm this kind of guy. But, you see... I have got some things, which are called responsabilities, so..._

 

_\- Who do you want make believe that ? We both know you have no sense of morality and you once hooked up with crooks._

 

 _\- I have my own way to apply the law and I can make the best of things that could be worse, so there isn't too much hassle. But, if you get of the wrong side of my radar, I promise you that I'll do my best to stop you, and I'm ready to make any nasty plot for that goal._ ”

 

 

Giovanni's Persian felt the Kahuna's animosity and its fur bristled as a reaction. Nanu quickly grabbed a Pokéball at his belt, and placed his own Persian between him and Team Rocket's creature, a beautiful beast larger than the average of its kind, the pride of his trainer.

 

 

Under the smug, even a bit amused looks of their respective trainers, the two cats judged themselves, growling and hissing, pawing, waiting for an order to hurl themselves into a ferocious melee. A simple pupil movement was the signal for the biggest of the two felines to attack, teeth bared, trying to tear off the ear of its opponent, discountenanced for a second by the suddenness of the attack and barely avoided to have its ear ripped apart. With a hand gesture, Giovanni showed his Pokémon how to retaliate and the white Persian emitted a bright ray from his frontal orb, that Nanu's Persian succeded to disperse by making ocher mud spurting with its legs, preventing the other feline to have enough accuracy to reach its target.

 

A brutal downpour interrupted them. The two felines expressed their discomfort to fight under the rain, forcing their trainers to call them back and settle the tension between them without the help of their Pokémon. Giovanni and Nanu hadn't moved an inch, staring stonily at each other, the water pouring over them didn't even make them flinch. They were just grinning like madmen, as if they wanted to stab the other in the back at the first off-guard moment.

 

A quick blow, straightly aimed to the head : Nanu wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty and for him, fights were as much against the trainers than their Pokémon. The Team Rocket's had just enough time to duck, so only his hat was swept away by the blow and landed withing a yard with a floppy sound. The respond to Nanu's attack wasn't slow to come and, taken away by his momentum, the ex-officer couldn't protect himself from being nudged in the ribs, making him stumbling and wincing in pain, forcing him to kneel in the mud.

 

Giovanni wasn't smiling anymore. He was just cold anger and tension, walking shoulders forward and his neck tucked back like a bull ready to charge, his fist clutching the palm of his other hand, in a menacing way. Nanu waited until he was close enough to throw him a handful of muddy earth on his face, taking adventage of the openning to flee at a reasonable distance before opting for a head-on charge aimed slightly lower than his foe's center of gravity, hoping to make him falling backwards.

 

 

The cop got what he wanted, and the leader of Kanto's mob toppled under the charge but not without inflicting a violent thump to Nanu's head, who despite being quite stunned during a second, could recover fast enough to climb astrid the Team Rocket's leader, then punched him hard in the nose. Instinctively, Giovanni struggled vehemently and swept Nanu aside in the mud, trying then to suffocate him with the weight of his body, his nose dripping with sticky blood all over is face.

 

 

The Kahuna managed to get his arms out and used them to make a strangle-hold, a technique he used to use when he was actively working for InterPol. He was also trying to hold tightly Giovanni's body with his legs, in order to prevent him to move too much. It was hard for Nanu to keep his hold, his build was slender than Giovanni's and he was half suffocated by the mud on his face and the rain who was falling directly into his nose and mouth. The underworld baron fought back, plunging his opponent's chest with his elbows, until voices were heard. The grunts who had finally found their boss, were able to release him by kicking Nanu's body with their boots, forcing him to abandon his catch.

 

 

Helped by a minion, Giovanni stood up, wiped the mud and the blood on his face with an angry gesture, then picked up his hat and glanced at Nanu who was lying in the laterite, glaring at Giovanni with his red eyes.

 

“ _You are warned : don't get in my way. You're too old for that crap. And know that next time, you'll be left face down._

 

_\- Oh you do me a favour, in memory of the good old days ?_

 

 _\- You have a tongue way too sharp. Use it for something helpful instead of being involved in my business. I hope for you there will be no next time._ ”

 

Giovanni ponctuated his sentence by expectorating some bloody phlegm onto the ground before turning out and walking away. He left limping, going with his escort, and Nanu remained alone under the storm, without being able to reply. The Kahuna foamed with rage against his weakness, his age, against this fucker and his plans who can annihilate Alola, or even the Earth.

 

Nanu dragged himself painfully to pick up his flip-flops and what remained of his dignity, while saying to himself that the next time, he would be harsher with Giovanni and from now on, since this was a declaration of war, war he would have.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Huge thanks to Istadris who helped me a lot to translate this ♥


End file.
